Bolstered by work permits and new freedom, Haitian immigrants are leaving their longtime strongholds in Florida and New York, often finding good jobs while fearing how they will be received in their new places in the Midwest and South.
The movement helps explain why Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, became embroiled in the presidential election. For several weeks, Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance have been spreading false rumors about Haitian immigrants in the city eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs.
Until recently, “Haitians were numbered in the dozens,” said Leonce Jean-Baptiste, who helped launch the program Haitian Association of Indiana in 2008. The association’s goal: “just to make sure that our children know that there is such a thing as Haitian culture, that their parents come from a very strong, very rich cultural and ethnic background,” he said.
Now the association has its hands full helping newcomers find housing and learn about Midwestern customs, Jean-Baptiste said. Immigrants are coming to fill Indiana factory jobs, a trend sparked by the pandemic.
“Here in Indiana, Ohio and the Midwest in general, the manufacturing industry was desperate for labor, so it was kind of a perfect marriage,” Jean-Baptiste said. “Haitians were looking for work, they may have lost their low-paying hotel job in Florida, they don’t have access to government benefits because they are not citizens, and they may do better here.”
As more Haitian immigrants can legally work anywhere thanks to work permits issued under the Biden administration, many have moved from unofficial jobs in Florida or New York to factory jobs in states such as Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Virginia.
These states saw some of the most significant increases in their Haitian immigrant population from 2019 to 2023, according to an analysis by Stateline.
During this time, Indiana’s Haitian immigrant population increased eightfold, to 12,465; nearly quadrupled in North Carolina, to 7,752; in Texas, the number more than doubled to 7,010; in Ohio it more than tripled to 5,264; in Virginia, the number more than doubled to 6,342; and nearly fivefold in South Carolina, to 2,569.
Meanwhile, smaller increases are seen in the more established strongholds where most Haitian immigrants live: New York (up 5%), Florida (up 1%) and Massachusetts (down 1%).
“The situation in New York is such that the cost of living and housing is deterring new Haitians. They move where there are jobs and housing — I know people who went to North Carolina, South Carolina,” said Francois Pierre-Louis, a Haitian-born professor of international migration studies at the Queens College campus of the City University of New York.
Pierre-Louis said those who explore new territories in the Midwest tend to be more experienced immigrants who already know enough English to get by.
“To be able to move inland, you need to have a certain level of cultural understanding of the United States to feel comfortable,” he added.
“It’s Always Been a Struggle”
In Florida and New York, where about two-thirds of Haitian immigrants still live, more experienced immigrants with their own memories of discrimination support new immigrants settle.
Mayor Alix Desulme of North Miami, Florida – the city with the highest concentration of Haitian-Americans, at about 38% in recent years – recalls that as a boy, when he arrived in Brooklyn, New York, he was ridiculed by people who falsely believed that Haitians are spreading AIDS.
“I am an immigrant and I am a black man. These things don’t go away,” Desulme said. “We are in the state of Florida where the governor would like immigrants to go somewhere else. It has always been a struggle for us as a nation, but we came to this country for a better life.
Dr. Pierre Arty, a Brooklyn psychiatrist who was born in Haiti, said the political vilification of Haitians has an impact that he tries to alleviate in his work with new immigrants for Brooklyn Works, a Brooklyn nonprofit. It happened in the 1980s with AIDS and it’s happening again with false narratives about eating pets, he said.
“We have social media where false information, negative memes about Haitians and offensive jokes can be quickly spread. It can foster inferiority complexes and shame as opposed to pride in being part of this community,” Arty said.
“It promotes dehumanization and revives historical black stereotypes that we are less than animals,” he said. “Imagine the mental impact it can have on children when other people laugh at them.”
It is complex to assess the growth of the immigrant community in Haiti since mid-2023, but it is clearly continuing in some states.
Clark County, Ohio, where Springfield is located, saw an boost in Haitian Creole Medicaid enrollment based on Haitian Creole language choice, from approximately 3,000 in mid-2023 to almost 8,000 in July 2024. That number has dropped to about 7,200 in August, according to the county Department of Job & Family Services.
The number of immigrants in the community is likely much higher because not all of them are on Medicaid, and Medicaid numbers will likely continue to decline as more people find work, said department director Virginia Martycz.
Here in Indiana, Ohio, and the Midwest in general, the manufacturing industry was desperate for labor, so this was the perfect kind of marriage. Haitians were looking for work.
– Leonce Jean-Baptiste, Haitian Association of Indiana
Jean-Baptiste believes the number of Haitian Americans and other immigrants in Indiana has increased to 30,000 from about 14,000 counted last year by the American Community Survey, based on contacts with his organization and name-based welfare reports.
“A little more mobility”
In New York, as in Florida, an established community helps new immigrants settle in before they move to areas with more jobs and cheaper housing.
“A work permit is a gateway to a little more mobility,” said Daniel Jean-Gilles of Nyack, New York, where he is among a wave of earlier Haitian immigrants trying to support the new arrivals. “I see a lot of new faces here. They come and stay here with family and friends while they wait for their work permit, and then they can move and get that job. “I’ve heard of people moving to North Carolina, Arizona to look for work.”
“Housing and jobs are very limited here. They have to go where the work is,” said FritzGerald Tondreau, an immigration lawyer and child of Haitian immigrants working in Spring Valley, New York.
Tondreau showed videos of brutal beatings and executions by gangs in Haiti, posted by gangs to intimidate enemies and hostages’ families, and said gangs had set up roadblocks demanding money on main roads. “It affects every aspect of life in Haiti and makes it very unsustainable,” he said.
There is a work permit available for many Haitian immigrants, either under federal Temporary Protected Status for unauthorized immigrants or on humanitarian parole for those awaiting asylum hearings if they crossed the border legally and do not have a solemn criminal history, Julia Gelatt said Deputy Director of the Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, DC
Many immigrants from Haiti utilize the so-called new federal program which allows them to travel directly from Haiti if they have a sponsor willing to support them while on momentary parole for humanitarian reasons.
Temporary protected status, first granted to Haitian immigrants when their nation was deemed too hazardous to return due to earthquakes in 2010, is now held by about 200,000 Haitian immigrants, second only to Venezuelans.
The condition was recent expanded by 2026 by the Biden administration and could theoretically end, but that is unlikely, Gelatt said. The Trump administration tried to end the Temporary Protected Status of Haiti and some other countries, but the policy was blocked by lawsuits until the Biden administration repealed it.
The bottom line, Gelatt said, is that many new Haitian immigrants are protected from deportation and can work legally for now, but few have a chance at legal constant residence and citizenship.
“This temporary status affects their sense of integration and willingness to invest in their future in the United States,” she said. “They can never be sure they will stay.”
For decades in the United States, where for many there was no clear path to citizenship, Haitian immigrants have learned to embrace uncertainty.
“It’s about waiting a long time, being good citizens and keeping a low profile,” Pierre-Louis said. “And most Haitians are good citizens. They go to church and work. They want to work. They are not here begging for anything.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
